Regulation of childcare

The government has today published its response to the consultation on the regulation of childcare.

Last year, in tandem with publishing More Affordable Childcare, the Government launched a public consultation on ‘The Regulation of Childcare’ which ran from 16 July to 30 September. They received 386 responses, and held meetings with key stakeholders. The responses received to the consultation have helped to shape the Government response. A copy of the consultation document, the report and Government response can be found here

The Government response outlines plans to:

Align the staffing and qualification requirements for out-of-hours care for children in the Reception class and 5-7year-olds with those governing the school day.

Remove the requirement for out-of-hours providers to meet the EYFS learning and development requirements for those children who are in the Reception class.

Raise the threshold for compulsory registration from two hours to three hours where the care is provided both in friendship and in domestic settings – for example, a parent can pay a friend to look after children for up to three hours a day in the friend’s own home without the friend needing to register with Ofsted

Enable providers to register multiple premises in a single registration process. e.g. a nursery chain can notify Ofsted of its intention to open a number of new settings in a single registration process

Enable childminders to operate on non-domestic premises for part of the working week. e.g. a childminder could provide care on school premises from 3-6pm

Remove the requirement for local authorities to approve childminder training – this will open up the market and improve access to training for childminders, including from childminder agencies

Align the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Register and the General Childcare Register

Rename the GCR to become the Child Safety Register

Timing and next steps

The relevant changes will be reflected in an updated version of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework which the Government intends to be in place later this year. This resource will be available on the Foundations website when it is published.